Summer 2010 catalogue details

Simon & Schuster have released their Summer 2010 catalogues, which are intended for booksellers for advanced solicitation purposes. As always with these catalogues, the information contained within them should not be considered final, and things may (and probably will) change before release.

As was announced a few months back, a new imprint, Gallery Books, has been formed by S&S as a combination of Simon & Schuster Entertainment and the hardcover/trade paperback imprints of Pocket. The mass market paperbacks remain under the Pocket Books/Pocket Star Books banner, but their solicitations are included in the Gallery Books catalogue.

The catalogue (PDF link) therefore contains the covers and blurbs for several forthcoming Star Trek releases, specifically the novels based on the 2009 movie.

Star Trek: Refugeesby Alan Dean Foster

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In this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Trek movie tie-in, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise must decide if a group of refugees are actually a menace–or just misunderstood.

When a strange distress call comes in and Kirk orders the Enterprise to answer it, they encounter a large colony ship of refugees under attack. Unable to convince the Dre'kalk to cease fire, Kirk engages them and drives off heir ships. The refugees–the Perenores, a race of furry bisymmetrical people–are starving, battered, and many are injured. Their ship wandered off course and their fuel and food is running out, so Kirk and the crew find a place for these displaced refugees. But just two months later, the Barran are threatening the Federation with war for protecting the Perenore menace. But Kirk and Spock are puzzled, the Perenores are peaceful people, what could have happened?

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Star Trek: Seek a Newer World by Christopher L. Bennett

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When the Enterprise is outnumbered and under attack, the crew manages to escape and discovers an entire hidden civilization in this exciting new original Star Trek novel.

Stung by Nero's escape, the Klingons are looking to salvage their pride by besting the ship that took him down: Enterprise. Command has assigned Kirk to observe and watch how the new captain performs his duties. A boring expedition becomes a fight for survival as the Klingons attack, outnumber, and outflank the young captain and his Enterprise crew. But just as the Enterprise escapes, the crew comes across an entire civilization of worlds within worlds hidden in a radiation belt of a large planet. A civilization so powerful that they can create all this? Kirk wonders just what are they hiding from and will do whatever it takes to find out.

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Star Trek: More Beautiful Than Death by David Mack

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An all-new adventure featuring the new Enterprise crew on a mission to broker a Federation trade agreement, from critically acclaimed Star Trek author David Mack.

Captain Kirk leads the crew of the Enterprise on a mission to Akiron, a world known for its rich dilithium deposits and isolationist government. Aboard is Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek, who is hoping to set up a trade agreement for the Federation with the planet. Pleased that the Federation has entrusted him with this mission, Kirk pledges everyone on Enterprise will grant the ambassador their full cooperation. Spock is happy to see his father and his Vulcan staff putting the destruction of their world behind them. But Sarek, however, has a secondary agenda while on board Enterprise...

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Star Trek: The Hazards of Concealing by Greg Cox(note that this title has changed slightly...)

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An all-new adventure featuring the new Enterprise crew–from New York Times bestselling author Greg Cox.

The events of the recent movie have left one important loose end: the elder Spock from the 24th century. His knowledge of both technology and future events makes him one of the most important strategic assets in the galaxy. Starfleet Command wants Ambassador Spock to rejoin Starfleet and share that information with them, but Spock is reluctant to interfere with the unfolding of the new timeline. Will he be able to escape a sinister plan wrought by the enemies of the Federation, or will their quest to exploit Spock's wisdom succeed, with disastrous consequences?

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So, there you have it. It is clear that the last two covers are not quite final - they lack the same logo as the first two. Overall, I much prefer the cover of Hazards, and would think a unified cover style with that as its basis, leading off the original teaser posters as it does, might have been a better approach.

And the stories seem much more appealing than they did with those half-grammatical one-liners from Amazon a few weeks ago

Interesting that Starfleet Command has been made aware of Spock Prime. I would've thought that he'd encourage Kirk and Young Spock to keep his role in the events of the movie to themselves. From what I remember of the movie, only Kirk, Spock, and Scotty had any direct contact with him, and I don't think it was generally known to anyone else that he was involved. Hopefully Command finds out in other ways detailed in the book, rather than it being a part of the crew's official reports.

^No, Pocket MMPBs appear to fall under Gallery. The catalogue has a specific section marked Pocket Books/Pocket Star Books Mass Market Titles, and there are more than just tie-ins within that section.

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I downloaded the catalogue and looked at every page in that section, and I do not see any other Trek titles. Typhon Pact is coming in the fall, or winter. I guess the summer is only tie-ins. Looks like I'll be re-reading Tolkien this summer.

Simon & Schuster have released their Summer 2010 catalogues, which are intended for booksellers for advanced solicitation purposes. As always with these catalogues, the information contained within them should not be considered final, and things may (and probably will) change before release.

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Oh, absolutely. I can guarantee that is not the final blurb for Seek a Newer World, nor is it particularly accurate.

So, there you have it. It is clear that the last two covers are not quite final - they lack the same logo as the first two.

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How do you know it's the last two that aren't final? If anything, my guess would've been that the later covers represent a more developed stage of the process. Or it could be that they're all going to be tweaked further.

You wrote: "their solicitations are included in the Gallery Books catalogue", but I thought we were getting more than just this fake timeline Trek.

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It's all fake, you know. They're just stories.

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Yeah, I know. And in a few years, I will probably read these. Right now, I don't want a petulant boy Spock or a deliquent boy Kirk. I like the old dignified ones that I'm used to. It's part of getting old. Sorry. It just takes older people longer to adjust to change.

It's good to see you guys have more work coming out, and I hope for your all to get a lot of royalties as S&S milks the current fad of totalling altering characters, which has done so much to get new audiences for Batman and X-Men. My hope is that, like all fads, this too shall pass, and you guys can get back to writing about the dignified grown-up characters we have loved for the last 40 years.

Yeah, I know. And in a few years, I will probably read these. Right now, I don't want a petulant boy Spock or a deliquent boy Kirk.

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Then you're in luck, because those aren't the Kirk and Spock featured in these books. Did you miss the third act of the film where they grew out of those stages and came closer to the Kirk and Spock we know?

It's good to see you guys have more work coming out, and I hope for your all to get a lot of royalties as S&S milks the current fad of totalling altering characters, which has done so much to get new audiences for Batman and X-Men.

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What's wrong with trying to appeal to a new audience? It's what keeps a series fresh and alive. And it's hardly a fad. Storytellers have been retelling old tales and adapting them for new audiences and new eras since before writing was invented. That which cannot grow and change is doomed to stagnate and die.

Heck, Star Trek itself came about because Gene Roddenberry took old concepts from the prose science fiction of the 1930s-50s (along with a fair amount of the Horatio Hornblower novels from the same period) and repackaged them in a form that was fresh and new to 1960s audiences.

My hope is that, like all fads, this too shall pass, and you guys can get back to writing about the dignified grown-up characters we have loved for the last 40 years.

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It's not an either-or situation. Pocket is continuing to publish books set in both continuities. And why shouldn't they? It's long been Pocket's strategy with ST to offer a wide range of titles to appeal to a wide range of tastes. There's no expectation that any given person is going to like every series that comes out, but given the diversity of the line, there should be something for everyone. This is just one more addition to the mix. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations and all that.

Which is disappointing. I said at the time the 2010 schedule was first announced, I think it would have been much better overal to mix up the books, have a TOS in january, nuTrek in feb, the first Typhon Pact book in march and then repeat etc...